The invention relates to an air blower for a refrigerator, a freezer, or the like, and particularly to a mechanism for preventing a fan used in a refrigerator or freezer from being damaged.
As shown in FIG. 1, in a prior art refrigerator or freezer a machine room 2 is disposed above a main unit 1. An air blower of the prior art, which supplies air cooled by an evaporator 3 to the interior of the main unit 1, is configured in the following manner. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, a fan motor 6 is downwardly directed and is attached to an attaching plate 5 fixed to a cooling air duct 4. A fan cover 7 in which the whole face has a grill-like shape is attached to the cooling air duct 4 at a position below the fan motor 6, and a tip end 9 of a fan rotation shaft, which is downwardly projected from a fan 8, is opposed to the fan cover 7.
When the fan motor 6 is used for a long time, the attaching plate 5 may become deformed by vibrations and the like, as shown in FIG. 4. This causes the fan motor 6 to drop from the original attachment position. When this happens, the tip end 9 of the fan rotation shaft may pass through an opening 7' of the grill of the fan cover 7 and the position of the fan 8 may be lowered to contact the inner face of the fan cover 7. When the fan 8 contacts the inner face of the fan cover 7, the fan 8 and the fan cover 7 both are damaged because of the rotation of the fan 8 and the load given by the fan motor 6. Moreover, the fan motor 6 may break because of an extra load imposed on the fan motor 6.
In a fan guard for a refrigerator disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Unexamined Publication No. Hei. 2-81380, the center portion of the fan guard, which is opposed to the rotation shaft of the fan, is closed. Since the fan rotation shaft horizontally elongates, there is little danger that the fan deviates toward the fan guard as a result of a long term use of the refrigerator. If the fan is downwardly directed and drops from the attachment position toward the fan guard, the fan immediately contracts the fan guard because the fan is disposed below the tip end of the fan rotation shaft. This causes the same problems as those of the above-described air blower of the prior art.